Thursday, June 6, 2013

Are These The Same Two Sisters?

Reminding me vaguely of the two little ones on the 1954 and
1955 Christmas greetings signed, “Helen, Sid, Diana and Judy,” a set of
photographs from Bill Bean’s collection has me stumped as to whether I’m
lumping the wrong blonde sisters together. Is this one set of sisters? Or two?

If you don’t remember those Christmas cards I posted last
December, click on the hyperlinks and refresh your memory. These were the
photos with the little girl in winter coat and muff—and then the next year,
now-big sister and new baby.

Let’s see if we have found some further matches.

The first candidate for this matching game is a Polaroid snapshot
of two little blondies playing with a brown and white spaniel. Of course, this
picture produces two clues to link it to Bill Bean—first, his tendency to
prefer his Polaroid camera, followed by the telltale hallmark of the same dog
seen in many of Bill’s pictures from that time period.

A later picture—now entering the world of color snapshots—also
features two blonde sisters, this time older and more sedate as they pose in
their matching dresses. Again, there is a dog in this photograph, but this
brown and white companion looks more like a basset hound than Bill’s spaniel. I’d
like to presume the man holding the dog is the two girls’ father—and possibly
the same man as the one sitting in the background of the previous picture. But I’m not
convinced.

Even after scanning the two photographs and enlarging them
to study the details, I’m not sure these two sets of sisters are one and the
same. Yes, their mother(s) tended to prefer the high trimmed bangs in fixing
their hair, but that might just be the style of the time. Or the way mothers
thought their daughters ought to look.

Along with these candid shots in Bill Bean’s photo
collection, two studio portraits were included. Once again, they appear to
be of sisters—carefully trimmed bangs, matching outfits and all.

Whether these all belong to the family who once sent Bill
and Ellen Bean yearly Christmas greetings—signed, from Sid, Helen, Diana and
Judy—I may never know. Of course, if someone had thought to include a surname,
I’d have one up on the genealogy website search engines.

Perhaps I’ll have to wait until some computer guru masters
even more amazing search capabilities.

Or maybe I’ll have to resign myself to awaiting the release
of the 1960 census.

I'm not in that much of a rush for its release, Wendy. There will be other ways to find these things out. Just think of it as yet another way to "build character" (as I'm sure many of our mothers and grandmothers might have said).

The studio portraits look a lot like the second picture and with any luck having such clear studio photos will help you identify these orphan photos. I also see the resemblance you Wendy and Claudia see in all the photos including the christmas card. I'm just not quite ready to put my money on it though it wouldn't be a bad bet!

The same girls..Diana and Judy! For sure! Too bad you don't know their last name. Someplace there is a face recognition software..I have heard about it but know nothing about it..it might help in this case. Maybe Iggy knows about it:)

Far Side, I would love it if I could harness some reliable face recognition software. You are right: Iggy would know. He sent me some suggestions last year, but as I recall, they didn't quite do the type of search I'd need. But someday, there will be something that does the trick.

Iggy, that brings up a good point: maybe these are business associates, rather than relatives. That certainly broadens the field of possibilities, though...something I wouldn't be prepared to tackle...

I found a "hummmm..." Did you know that Dr. Sidney Garfield of Kaiser Permanente (the owner of the Oakland Hospital) married a much younger woman named Helen around 1952? If they had children... I can't find anything to that regard ... but ... Dr. Garfield it seems, was a heart specialist..

http://www.stuff.tv/news/life-etc/stuff/the-history-of-the-polaroid-instant-camera tells us that the Polaroid instant photo reached the market place in 1948. Any Polaroid shot will date after that year. Apparently the "film" size changed and it might (just might) help date the shots to when that particular film size was produced. Can you measure the photos? :)

Oh, I think this is the same pair of girls, three times over. Call it a gut feeling. I was posed so many times as a little girl that I totally recognize the similar style in the second and third pair. And the man with the spaniel/hound even has his hair parted on the same side. I'm calling it a match. It's an ID until proven to be an error -- our version of "innocent until proven guilty."

About Me

It is my contention that, after a lifetime, one of the greatest needs people have is to be remembered. They want to know: have I made a difference?
I write because I can't keep for myself the gifts others have entrusted to me. Through what I've already been given--though not forgetting those to whom I must pass this along--from family I receive my heritage; through family I leave a legacy. With family I weave a tapestry. These are my strands.